A look at where Jesus Christ may have been buried in Jerusalem

Jesus Christ is most often said to have been born on Christmas, the 25th day of December. His death was sometime in the spring when he was killed by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. But where was he buried?

The place of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is a location of great theological significance, being the holiest place in Christianity in all its denominations.

Over time, a few locations in Israel have claimed to be Jesus’ resting place. But which is legitimate?

First, we need to take into account what we know for certain.

Christian tradition and biblical scholars tend to all agree that the crucifixion of Jesus happened just outside the walls of Jerusalem. This location, known as Calvary or Golgotha, was specifically mentioned in the New Testament as being outside the city gates and accessible for those who were traveling.

Jesus Christ (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

This was made more complicated due to the walls of the city having been expanded multiple times since the crucifixion, so the actual location may have been moved inside the walls over time.

Here is everything you need to know about the potential burial places of Jesus Christ.

Talpiot tomb

The Talpiot tomb is an ancient rock-cut burial site in Jerusalem’s East Talpiot neighborhood that contained a number of graves within, one of them being Yeshua ben Yosef, also known as Jesus son of Joseph.

Considering Jesus Christ is said to be the son of a man named Joseph, or rather the son of God but raised by a man named Joseph, who was the husband to Jesus’ mother Mary, this has often been cited as a testament to the tomb’s legitimacy.

Also buried in the tomb are a woman named Mary, someone else named Joseph, someone named Matthew, and someone named Yose – and these names do not inherently discredit this site’s legitimacy.

Stay updated with the latest news!

Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter

But more controversial is the inclusion of a grave marked “Judas, son of Jesus.” Judas is a name linked to Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ Apostles who betrayed him.

Most scholars seem to think, however, that this tomb is not the resting place of Jesus Christ but rather someone else who happened to be named Jesus, son of Joseph. Supporting this is that experts claim the site shows more signs of being a family tomb for a wealthy Judean family. Jesus Christ, meanwhile, is said to have hailed from a poor family from Nazareth.

Some scholars disagree, though. In 2015, Israeli geoarchaeologist Arye Shimron claimed to have made a connection between the Talpiot tomb and the James Ossuary, often cited as archaeological evidence of the existence of Jesus.

Orthodox Christian worshippers attend the Holy Fire ceremony amid eased coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 1, 2021. (credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher

This site in what is now the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem has the most widespread support for its claim.

According to traditional accounts, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in the 4th century CE. After Roman Emperor Constantine the Great legalized Christianity, he had sent his mother Helena to look for Jesus’s tomb in Jerusalem. Supposedly, she found the True Cross, the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, near a tomb on the location of a pagan temple, dedicated either to Jupiter or Venus. The temple was torn down, with a rock-cut tomb being revealed underneath, which was assumed to be the tomb of Jesus Christ.

While the church is now within the walls of Jerusalem, this is only because the walls were expanded by Herod Agrippa a decade after the crucifixion.

The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem (credit: Courtesy)

The Garden tomb

Found in the 1800s in Jerusalem, this tomb is notable for being very old, with archaeologists dating it back to around the 7th century BCE – centuries before the story of Jesus.

Most Christians still consider the location to be the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but those are just the Christians with representation in the church, such as Catholics, Coptics, and Orthodox Christians.

Protestants, however, are another story. After the Protestant Reformation, many cast doubt on some of the traditional opinions regarding the location of Golgotha, especially as more Protestants became able to visit Jerusalem on pilgrimage in the early 19th century.

The big issue many scholars have with it is the fact that this tomb is clearly much older than the time of Jesus. Normally, this wouldn’t be a bad thing because people at the time were known to reuse old tombs for new burials. However, the New Testament clearly specifies that Jesus was buried in a tomb that was newly dug out by Joseph of Arimathea.

Regardless, the tomb remains a popular pilgrimage site for many Protestant Christians as well as Mormons.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1730128020581377’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);